sustain:if:able kiwi

the stories we tell, the implications for change

I’m currently reading Gerald Arbuckle’s, Culture, Inculturation, and Theologians: A Postmodern Critique, 2010. It is an accessible overview of culture and the implications for mission. His argument is that issues around gospel and culture is the drama of our day. And being an anthropologist by training (as well as a Catholic priest), he is concerned about how poorly the church understands culture and is aware of the massive shift in contemporary analysis of culture.

Which makes us naive at best, dangerous and destructive at worst.

Anyhow, Chapter 5 Culture as Narratives Negotiating Identities (63-80) is really insightful. Arbuckle begins by arguing that while myths help a culture clarify a past, stories clarify the present. He then suggests seven types of narratives often present in cultures.

• composure – stories that, for the sake of peace, overlook painful parts of a past
• romanticism – stories that not only overlook a painful past, but do so in ways that re in fact inventions
• nationalism – stories that manipulate history in order to impose a current purpose
• minorities – stories in which identity is founded by placing oneself as on the edge, as marginal
• refounding – stories in which the past is told in a way that brings founding energy into one’s future
• marketplace – stories in which new insights are added to a past, often for the commercial advantage of a certain group
• grieving – stories in which loss in acknowledged

While Arbuckle is not explicit, my sense is that in terms of the church and change, he would encourage stories of refounding and stories of grieving, but is uneasy about the others.

As I read, I began to think of what stories the church is currently telling about itself.

• an email overnight from a colleague, expressing concern that his church was overlooking a painful present, in a sort of “it will be all right” type of process
• books that argue if we just return to the New Testament church, we will be alright, a romanticism that ignores the conflict in Corinth, the ethnic tensions in Acts 6 or the lack of response in Athens
• the placing of American flags in a church as a sign of nationalism
• a realisation within myself that I have placed myself (downunder Kiwi), and the emerging church, as a minority, in order to gain traction
• the commercialism of Christian music as a story of marketplace

And I think of the work of Andrew Dutney, who in the Uniting Church has offered a story of refounding, explored the Basis of Union as a mission document, around which much energy and potential for renewal has occurred.

ordination and the future: a question of mission

An email I sent to a friend, that I realised as I wrote it that I want to place on the blog for my ongoing reference. It is a processing shaped by the unique location in which I find myself – trained a Baptist, ministering as a Baptist minister, now serving in a Synod of the Uniting Church of Australia. In doing so, I point to the byline in the header of my blog “steve taylor … in process … all thoughts personal and provisional.”

I don’t see ordination as a functional thing tied to existence, or otherwise, of funding models via church.

I see ordination in the future as being a sort of mission order of the church. As families and society get more and more complex, we need a “training bar” that encourages self-awareness and skilled ministry. As society gets more individualised, we need networks that encourage catholicity, apostolicity and mutuality.

So I see ordination in the future as encouraging this sort of missional ordering – a way of being that exists to encourage training, to develop practices of collegiality and accountability, to enhance peer support and reflection, for apostolicity (starting new things).

Many ordained will be bi-vocational or voluntary, but then ordination has never surely, been simply a function of Christendom’s imagination of church as a building and a full-time presider.

We will also have non-ordination missional orders – and perhaps the Uniting church ministry category of “Pastor” is an ideally container for this. It too encourages training and points toward a sort of learning community in mission.

But this missional ordering is expressed as a more localised expression, more likely to emerge in one location and remain in one location. (Rather than ordination which seems to reference a belonging to the whole church in terms of placement).

So ordination beyond Christendom has a future, as one expression of the church in mission.

the task of forming leaders for mission

Here’s some current thinking. I reckon the forming of leaders involves three things and one direction.

The three things are

• skills – this involves the learning to do things – to preach, to influence, to care, to exegete culture
• vocation – this often involves increased knowledge, about our tradition as church, about the big tradition of the church in history, the shape of ministry
• personhood – this involves self-awareness and spirituality – who we are in the process of living and learning

The one direction is that of mission, that in our post-Christendom context, we need skills and vocation and personhood pointed toward a life lived for the world.

Now here’s my current theory, that in forming leaders, we all start in one of these places. Some of us start with skills (for example supervised field education or immersion experiences or homilectics or worship curating). Some of us start with vocation (for example the way many folk teach theology or Christian history). Some of us start with personhood (for example CPE or pastoral care or personality testing).

This leaves a place that forms leaders with four key questions

• Is the balance right? Some colleges are dominated by vocation type learning. Others are keen to teach skills. If all three are needed, then we need a curriculum that pulls all three into the mix.
• Is each starting point handing the person on – is skills pointing to vocation and personhood, while is vocation pointing to skills etc? Too often colleges default to a dualism of either practice or theory, when the challenge is to model integration, a spiralling between all three, in an ever deepening circle? Where we start is often shaped by personality and by our learning styles – we learn in particular ways, so we assume that others learn our way. Are we able to get beyond the way we learn?
• Timing? When in the formation of each unique individual, do they need to be in which sector? Which skills do they need at the beginning and which at the end? Which building blocks of knowledge are needed when and where? When is the best place to invite self-reflection?
• Is the direction clear? Is all our skills and vocation and personhood being shaped by a life lived for the world?

Thoughts? Have I named the task of forming leaders accurately?

contemporary ministry images in Rev

I’m teaching church, ministry, sacraments and enjoying watching the BBC programme the Rev for clips worth showing to the class.

The first half of episode 3 is fascinating, as within 12 minutes it explores the wide range of ministry and mission models possible

• ministry as carer – in this clip, with the great line “Soft touch for cash”
• also ministry as inter-faith dialogue – in the welcoming of Muslims to use the church
• ministry as Religious educator in schools
• ministry as prophet – in the challenging of the start of a local strip club next door to the local school
• ministry as funeral director – in the opening scene in which, being an inner-city parish, the hearse is towed away during the funeral

the theological prejudice against the word leadership

A lovely, provocative quote from the current College Principal, Andrew Dutney, summing up some of the resistance to Uniting College deciding to call itself in 2008 the Uniting College of Leadership and Theology.

Everyone knew that “leadership” was a worldly fad that a real theological college would have nothing to do with. Most of the literature (though not all) came from America – and especially the tainted world of business. Most of the Christian literature on leadership (though not all) came from evangelical and Pentecostal churches – and although we describe the Uniting Church as catholic, reformed and evangelical we don’t mean that kind of evangelical. Most of it (but not all of it) was a popular, exhortative style – heavy on anecdote and light on intellectual rigour. From the perspective of a real theological college “leadership” was almost a dirty word.

In Andrew Dutney, A Genuinely educated ministry. Effective leaders for a healthy, missional church. New Updated Preface, page 5.

growth in mission please

I’m fielding some lovely requests from folk inquiring about our Masters in Ministry (missional cohort). Pastors and leaders in context, just wanting to grow in their skills.

Like this one:

I would be very interested in pursuing a M.Min (distance) with you guys – your reputation is growing! – as I believe the practical, mission-focussed aspect of the College offers the type of environment I am seeking.

or this one

when S. approached me to discuss continuing education he was quite clear that he wanted to have the opportunity to grow as he has seen me grow [through the Masters programme) this year.

The goal is to add 4-5 new folk each year, and we’ve already got 4 solid enquiries for 2012, which is just great. (The logic is that because the Master of Ministry can only be undertaken by those in ministry ie part-time over 4 years, if 4-5 join each year, we develop a cohort of 15-20, an ideal size for the personal interaction we want to foster).

(I’ll blog some of our 2012 offerings in the next few weeks. In the meantime for more on the general shape of the programme go here).

Missional Masters

Missional Masters Yr 1

women finding voice in historically male gatherings

Has anyone got any useful resources
- personal experience
- research they’ve come across
- books they’ve read
- people they’ve heard
- processes they’ve experienced
on what it means for historically male dominated institutions to learn and re-learn ways of being that free women to fully find their voice?

I’m not thinking simply about equal representation, but the deeper issues around the ways genders form relationships, and relate, the ways issues are processed, what it means for folk to learn from, yet not remain in, prior history?

seminaries as missional orders planting missional communities

it is unethical to send gifted, idealistic, and high-potential young leaders into intractable, dysfunctional congregations that will grind them up, disillusion them, and damage them for life

So suggests Brian Mclaren in a recent article on the future of seminaries. He argues that seminaries are doing a great job of providing a robust intellectual environment, ecumenical diversity, are soul-friendly and engaged missionally and offer a rich communal life.

I was talking to colleagues about this very issue over the weekend, expressing concern about the places that talented young ministers can end up in churches that have a slogan:

an unchanging church seeking an unchanging world

Brian offers a simple suggestion: “turn towards the development of new faith communities.”

What a grand suggestion. I would frame it as seminaries forming themselves as missional orders planting missional communities. And it is where, I think, we at Uniting College are structured to head with the Pioneer stream of our Bachelor of Ministry: a degree based on a student spending their time hands on entrepreneurial ie actually planting something – whether congregation or justice project or art collective and around that experience being formed as a leader and in relation to the wisdom of the church in the past.

In the article, Brian acknowledges that this is not for everyone and again, I agree. My response is to suggest that rather than individualised field work, the seminary select some “mission sites.” These would be diverse in context and in partnership with local churches. Seminary lecturers would be expected to be embedded in these projects, offering their talents in relation to these missional sites. One could be in a poorer suburb, another in a new build area, another in a pocket of sub-cultures. (For those reading this in Adelaide, I am actually thinking of specific sites

Students would select a mission site, thus finding themselves in clusters of learning through planting focused on a mission sites. The clusters and the sites would allow for a diversity of giftings to be explored, for some to develop mercy, others to plot radical justice, others to nurture being pastoral, others speaking evangelistically. By clustering they are being formed in ministry as team from the start. As a cohort of people, students will enter and exit, around a stable core of people. Gathering at College will be shaped by the issues of these contexts, the College will be praying for these sites (think contextual pictures around the College walls). Over time, new faith communities develop. Seminaries as missional orders planting missional communities.

Anyone else up for such ride?

the never ending list: leading in change

I really like this idea, found on the walls of our local IKEA.

Basically, they are advertising the improvements, they as an organisation have made. While it is part of their marketing, I think it contains some really interesting possibilities that could be easily adapted by any group

1. start an open ended list titled “the never ending list.”
2. keep a record of all the projects that could improve your team/group/community/church/business
3. every now and again, decide as a team/group/community/church/business to pause from life as usual. Shut the door, turn off the phones, ditch a few meetings, stop a church service – whatever you need to do to unplug.
4. instead gather as a group and invite folk to choose from “the never ending list.” Anything. With anyone they want. Some folk will want to work alone, others in groups. Some will want to work with those they know, others with someone new.
5. use the time you have put aside from (3) to make progress on the idea
6. meet at the end to share with each other what you’ve done, over food and drink. Cross of any completed projects. Add any new possibilities thrown up. Celebrate progress. Laugh.

I think it would provide satisfaction, promote teamwork, ensure improvements, all in ways that were sustainable, fun and communal.

Further posts:
For a related practical post on leading and change, see migration days.

burning bush (Exodus 3 and 4), mission, call, creativity and Advent

I’ve been sitting for the last few months with the call of Moses in Exodus 3 and 4. A few months ago I heard it told well as a children’s story and really hit me. First, mission and the importance of beginning with our ears on. Second, call and what it means for me to respond to God’s call by simply giving my “staff” – my gifts, talents, experiences.

Over the weekend, as a way of trying to dwell further on the text, I googled burning bush icons. (I’m just about to finish an icon (another pioneer Jesus), so I’m beginning to feel my way toward my next icon project.) I could only find about four and one, was most intriguing. It is titled the Theotokos of the Unburnt Bush.

Mary is surrounded by the flames. She literally sits in the middle of the burning bush, while Jesus sits in the middle of Mary! I like how small Moses is, off and to the side, and the little angels up top, doing their spiritual play!

Textually, much of Jesus in the Gospels, especially in Matthew, is framed as the new Moses, leading a new Exodus. Thus visually, a burning bush icon that references Jesus is very Biblically astute.

What struck me was how visually it connects for me with that superb Advent icon, the Theotokos Orans icon.

Toward the end of last year, leading into Advent, I spent much time reflecting on the Orans icon and the implications for mission, church and pioneer leadership (here and here).

So there is something intuitive here for me, about the need to take of shoes for we stand on holy ground, about the mission of Moses as a forerunner of the mission of Jesus, about refinement, about possibilities.

Yes, I think I know what my next icon might be!

the white spaces in leader formation

Imagine a page. On it are black marks that make up words.

On it are also white spaces – the edges of the paper and the gaps between words.

Easy to overlook, yet essential for legibility, for clarity, for ease of reading.

Often when we talk formation, we concentrate on the back marks – the topics, the books, the content that needs to be internalised.

But what about the white spaces? If faith is caught much more than taught then what does it mean to cultivate the white spaces of leader formation, to be deliberate and intentional not just about developing and assessing the progress of black space internalisation, but white space formation?

The whites spaces include many things. For me, the list starts with things like mentoring, worship, spiritual practices. What would you add?

In what ways have you seen good practice in regard to the white spaces in leader formation – both in your own life and as you engage with others?

And how might we tend to the white spaces in a dispersed culture, when the academy is no longer monastic or the student’s sole community, but is one of multiple communities they are part of? How does we encourage God and the student’s work across what is in fact multiple white spaces?

a visual vision for mission

This image became prayer for me today.

It was from an item of clothing at Pumpkin Patch. It got me thinking about a quote from Mike Frost, via Tim Hein at the mission shaped ministry course on Wednesday night

If you want to change the church more than you want to change the world, you’re NOT YET MISSIONAL.

And some things clicked for me in terms of leadership development. I’ve struggled historically with the concept of training leaders for the church. That’s because it’s often been presented as a vision to change the church.

Which is, as Mike rightly notes, is simply not missional. I need to keep hold of the vision of leading a church to build the city, rather than building the church itself. That’s what missional church leadership is all about.

For another vision for mission, see here.

leading in a mission: moses style

Sitting in church yesterday, I heard a particularly good storytelling of the call of Moses. I began to appreciate a number of important insights in regard to leading in mission.

First, the call begins with the cry of a people. So leading begins with listening, to the cries of those in pain. This is a care for another, a motivation to serve born out of desire to serve. And in the Moses story, the listening is quite specific, the cries of an oppressed Israelite people at a particular time in history. Good leading involves that depth, knowing what are the cries of our community, at a particular time. (For a specific way to do this, see some ideas I have produced here and here and here).

Second, Moses was invited to give what he had, his staff, his hand. In other words, to share what he had. This could be viewed thought the lens of asset-based community development, or appreciative inquiry, that Moses builds on what he has, on what he knows, rather than on what he does not have, or does not know. All people, all churches, all groups, have something in their hand, have gifts and insights and important ways of being. Leading in mission starts with being willing to offer that.

Third, it assumes our feelings of inadequacy. I find this wonderfully liberating. I often feel overwhelmed by what lies around me and deeply aware of my own limitations. So did Moses. Yet God called in and with those limitations.

So, leading in mission – Moses style

• listen deeply, specifically
• assume we start with limitations and liabilities
• simply give what we’ve got

I can almost feel a sermon coming on! Which might be important, given that I am speaking Tuesday night at a Uniting Church Community network!

pioneer night for a pioneer course in a pioneer country: launch of mission shaped ministry Adelaide

Last night was a good night. The wind was wild and the rain heavy. But the room felt warm and alive.

A pilot of the mission shaped ministry (msm) course kicks off in Adelaide July 27. A partnership between Anglican, Lutheran and Uniting churches, it will run over 14 weeks and one weekend.

Last night Dave Male, Director of the Centre for Pioneer Ministry, at Ridley College, Cambridge was in town. It seemed an opportunity to good to miss, a chance both to hear from him and to offer some information about mission shaped ministry.

About 40 folk showed up, which was pretty exciting for a wet and wild winter’s night. A representative from each of the 3 partner churches offered prayer and input. This included a ringing endorsement from Archbishop Jeffrey Driver, who hoped that when Anglican history is written, the most important thing about the year 2011 will be the successful launch of the mission shaped ministry course. Dave Male shared about the impact of msm in the UK and it’s importance in cultivating a missional climate. I shared some of the story of how the course came to be in Australia and spoke about the shape of the programme. (For those interested, my notes are below the fold).

Some time for questions. And then we prayed together. Across denominations. A  living ecumenism, gathered around the task of mission.

Please join us. Please do pause at this point

… and pray with us … and for God’s ongoing purposes in Adelaide and Australia.

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